Austen Power

To mark the 200th anniversary of 'Pride and Prejudice,' novelists, moviemakers and scholars are releasing a flood of new homages to cash in on the bottomless appetite for all things Austen.

By

Alexandra Alter

Jan. 24, 2013 6:38 p.m. ET

When Jane Austen received a copy of her newly published novel, "Pride and Prejudice," in January of 1813, she immediately wrote to her sister Cassandra: "I want to tell you that I have got my own darling Child from London."

In the last 200 years, Austen's "darling child" has spawned hundreds of literary offspring, making it one of the most frequently adapted novels in history. The novel, which centers on the rocky romance between the spirited, obstinate protagonist Elizabeth Bennet and the...